


Truths to Avoid

by devilinthedetails



Category: PIERCE Tamora - Works, Tortall - Tamora Pierce
Genre: Arranged Marriage, Cultural Adjustments, Cultural Differences, Gen, Interracial Marriage, Politics, Secrets, Truth, canon typical sexism, interracial couple
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-18
Updated: 2018-07-18
Packaged: 2019-06-12 15:54:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15343278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/devilinthedetails/pseuds/devilinthedetails
Summary: Thayet and Shinko discuss truths that can and can't be avoided. Set during Squire.





	Truths to Avoid

**Author's Note:**

> Somewhat of a prequel to "Rumor Has It" but written very much to stand alone.

Truths to Avoid

“Roald doesn’t seem to be aware of our morning training sessions.” Queen Thayet shot Shinko a sidelong glance as they sat on a bench at the end of another lesson in Yamani fighting techniques, which the queen appeared far along the path to mastering. “Are you avoiding mentioning them to him?” 

“He hasn’t asked me about any training sessions.” Shinko ducked her head, neither answering nor avoiding her future mother-in-law’s question. She wouldn’t lie to her betrothed or his mother, but she would keep her own counsel and reveal only what she judged wise when she deemed appropriate. Knowledge, especially to a stranger in a foreign land, was power, and silence shaped the world as much as words. Shinko sculpted the perceptions of others by manipulating what she confided to them and when. Easterners couldn’t understand it, but the art of conversation was dictated as much by what went unsaid as what was said. In the Yamani Islands, that instinctive intuition of when to use her voice and when to use her silence had been expected of her as a princess of the imperial line. “When he does, I will tell him the truth of our sessions, but until he asks, I would not bore him with the details of how I fill my days.” 

Men, Prince Eitaro had reminded her only yesterday, did not appreciate the inane chattering of women, and a man with an unconventional mother would crave a traditional wife as the dry side of a mountain would naturally and inevitably thirst for rain. 

“You needn’t fear his reaction.” Queen Thayet’s eyes were shiny and sharp as daggers, and Shinko had to picture a lake’s serene surface to maintain a properly blank expression. “Horse Lords know, my oldest can be a bit stiff sometimes—I blame it on too much time spent with our uptight Master Oakbridge during his formative years—but the doting mother in me doubts he would be cruel to anyone least of all you.” 

“He’s never been cruel to me.” Shinko had never seen the Crown Prince be unkind or discourteous to anyone however low-ranking. That should have been reassuring, but because he rarely allowed her glimpses into his mind or heart, she was left to wonder what thoughts and emotions hid behind the polite mask he wore that wouldn’t have been out of place in the Yamani Islands but was in the Eastern Lands. His pleasant neutrality stonewalled her in a way it wouldn’t have if he were on of her people who communicated according to her culture rather than his own. “Indeed, he’s never been anything less than courteous to me, Your Majesty.” 

“Good.” Queen Thayet’s smile was wry. “Jon and I like to believe that we bought him up right.” 

“None would ever criticize His Highness’s upbringing.” Shinko folded her hands neatly on her lap, not to warm them but to conceal any shaking this conversation with her future mother-in-law might provoke. Her bearing must remain poised and her words graceful testimonies to the centuries of gentle breeding she embodied. She mustn’t insult her family or the one she would marry into with any clumsiness of word or deed. She must be a beautiful butterfly flitting delicately from topic to topic, collecting sweet nectar with each pause, without disturbing any flowers. 

“Many in Tortall have, but those complaints mostly come from conservatives who grumble over every decision my husband and I make.” Queen Thayet studied Shinko with a look suddenly shifting to serious. “The complaints of conservatives don’t trouble Jon or me, but yours would, my dear Shinkokami. If Roald is ever less than courteous with you, please tell my husband or me at once, so we may speak with him about how you should be treated.” 

“His Highness gives me no cause for complaint.” Shinko thought she would be a spoiled princess indeed if she had gripes about a prince who was always respectful of her, favoring her with soft compliments and considerate gifts even if he was never passionate and never so presumptuous as to press for more than a kiss on her fingers or her cheek if he was feeling especially bold. “He honors me with his kindness every day, Your Majesty.” 

“You deserve every kindness.” Queen Thayet reached out to squeeze Shinko’s hand, and Shinko almost gasped at the unanticipated intimacy of the gesture. 

“Your Majesty is too generous to me.” Shinko was stunned, and not for the first time, by the open kindness—the generous spirit—her future mother-in-law displayed to her when she would have been treated as a glorified slave by the woman who would have been her mother-in-law in the Yamani Islands. The contrast was always dizzying to contemplate, a reflection of the confusing and myriad roads a life could take from different crossroads. Recovering her wits, she went on, “Still, I would beg the indulgence of being permitted to inform His Highness of our training sessions at a time of my choosing.” 

Tactfully, she avoided mentioning that such a time might never arrive. 

“It’s not an indulgence, but I grant it to you anyway.” Queen Thayet gave Shinko’s hand a final squeeze before releasing it. “You may tell Roald of our lessons when the time feels best to you. It might even be good for him to be surprised—to be jolted out of his stiffness.”

Queen Thayet’s grin seemed to invite Shinko to share the mild joke at her son’s expense, but Shinko would not risk treating her future husband as a subject of levity and instead replied smooth as silk, “I hope never to surprise or offend my betrothed.” 

“A woman must surprise and offend her husband sometimes, my dear.” There was a twinkle in Queen Thayet’s gaze that undermined the gravity of her advice and made Shinko chance a smile thin as a ribbon streaming in the wind. “If she doesn’t challenge him, he’ll grow complacent, and nothing is more aggravating than a complacent man. For your own sanity, avoid a complacent husband like the Sweating Sickness.” 

Shinko was too wrong-footed by the bluntness of her future mother-in-law’s comment to manage a deft response but at least she resisted the temptation to stare gape-jawed at the queen who had no qualms about implying that in some situations Shinko should rule over her husband, an idea Shinko had always been taught to avoid as it would transform her into an irascible old hag whose tongue would beat away her husband with her scolding. 

With a secret smile, Shinko decided that perhaps Queen Thayet was too beautiful to worry about becoming a hideous hag, and maybe Shinko was too, though the very notion was probably unattractive in its arrogance…Roald didn’t need much steering away from complacency anyway. He lacked his father’s confidence as Shinko did Queen Thayet’s, and that was a truth that couldn’t be avoided.


End file.
